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Aston Martin reinvents a legendary sportscar with a new V12 beast

by Ryan McManus

The 1960 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato was something of an automotive legend. A lightened DB4, designed by the famed Italian Design house Zagato, only 20 of them were ever produced.

The carmaker, never shy about revisiting their storied history, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original with the new Vantage V12 Zagato, announced today. Where the original Zagato Astons were dictated heavily by the Italian design group, this new Zagato version is more of a design collaboration with Aston’s noted in-house design team.

The results are striking. Zagato has elevated Aston’s measured (some could say conservative) supercar design language and added some Italian attitude, resulting in a more aggressive, more sculptural interpretation of the brand and of the collaboration. But the beauty of the V12 Zagato is deeper than its hand-formed aluminum skin. Underneath its all Vantage, including the snarling six-liter V12 putting out 510bhp. This is exceedingly good news—our road test of the Vantage S left us big fans of the platform.

The V12 Zagato will make it’s official debut tomorrow at the Villa D’Este Concours, and a race-going version will be debuted at the VLN race at Nürburgring on 28 May 2011. If you want one for your own stable, better call Aston directly; although not officially on sale, the V12 Zagato will be built on a bespoke basis in a “strictly limited” run.